Ippolita Cantuti-Castelvetri

Ippolita Cantuti-Castelvetri, PhD

Dr. Cantuti-Castelvetri joined MIND, MGH and Harvard Medical School in 2000. She has been studying the changes in gene expression patterns associated with alpha-synuclein related disorders such as Parkinson disease (PD) and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). She is one of the lead investigators of the MGH/MIT Morris Udall Center of Excellence in PD Research, a collaboration between scholars at both MIND and MIT to understand disease mechanisms, with the goal of ultimately translating discoveries to new therapeutics.

During her tenure at MIND, Dr. Cantuti-Castelvetri was able to identify signaling pathways that are potentially implicated in the onset and progression of PD and DLB, including elucidating the different pathways in male and female brains which support the gender differences observed in the incidence of these diseases (i.e., both diseases are more common in men).

Dr. Cantuti-Castelvetri, in collaboration with Dr. Schwarzschild at MIND and the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT, is conducting research aimed at understanding some of the molecular mechanisms involved in the development of drug-induced dyskinesia in PD.

She is also examining the role that mitochondria plays in neurodegeneration, in collaboration with Dr. David K. Simon of the Human Mitochondrial Genetics Laboratory at the Beth Israel Deaconess in Boston, MA and the Neurology Department at Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York.

Selected Original Articles

Cantuti-Castelvetri I., Joseph J.A., 1999, Differential effect of dopamine catabolism and uptake inhibition on dopamine-induced calcium dysregulation and viability loss. Free Radical Biology and Medicine, 27:1393-1404.

Cantuti Castelvetri I, Keller-McGandy C.E., Albers D.S., Beal M.F., Vonsattel J.-P. Standaert D.G., Augood S.J., 2002, Expression and Activity of antioxidant in the brain in Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, Brain Res, 930:170-181

Hassan W.H., Cantuti-Castelvetri I., Denissova N.A., Joseph J.A., Paulson K.E., 2002, Mechanism of cellular protection from oxidative stress by the nitrone-spin trap PBN: Altered Calcium entry and activation of the ERK pathway. Free Rad Biol Med, 32, 551-561.

Kelicen P, Cantuti-Castelvetri I, Peliker C, Paulson KE, 2002, The Spin Trapping agent PBN stimulates H2O2-induced ERK and Src kinase activity in Human neuroblastoma cells, Neuroreport, 13: 1057-1061.

Cantuti-Castelvetri I., Shukitt-Hale B., Joseph J.A., 2003, Dopamine toxicity in aging: Histological and behavioral correlates. Neurobiol. Aging, 24:697-706.

Cantuti-Castelvetri I, Klucken J, Ingelsson M, Ramasamy K, McLean PJ, Frosch MP, Hyman BT, Standaert DG., Alpha-synuclein and chaperones in dementia with Lewy bodies. J Neuropathol Exp Neurol. 2005 Dec; 64(12):1058-66.

Cantuti-Castelvetri I, Lin MT, Zheng K, Keller-McGandy CE, Betensky RA, Johns DR, Beal MF, Standaert DG, Simon DK., Somatic mitochondrial DNA mutations in single neurons and glia. Neurobiol Aging. 2005 Nov-Dec; 26(10):1343-55.

St Martin JL, Klucken J, Outeiro TF, Nguyen P, Keller-McGandy C, Cantuti-Castelvetri I, Grammatopoulos TN, Standaert DG, Hyman BT, McLean PJ. Dopaminergic neuron loss and up-regulation of chaperone protein mRNA induced by targeted over-expression of alpha-synuclein in mouse substantia nigra. J Neurochem. 2007 Mar;100(6):1449-57. Epub 2007 Jan 4.

Cantuti-Castelvetri I, Keller-McGandy C, Bouzou B, Asteris G, Clark TW, Frosch MP, Standaert DG. Effects of gender on nigral gene expression and parkinson disease.
Neurobiol Dis. 2007 Jun;26(3):606-14. Epub 2007 Mar 3.

Reviews and Chapters

Cantuti-Castelvetri I., Shukitt-Hale B., Joseph J.A., 2000, Neurobehavioral aspects of antioxidants in aging. International Journal of Developmental of Neuroscience, 18:367-381.

Cantuti-Castelvetri I., Standaert D.G., 2004, Neuroprotective Strategies for Parkinson’s Disease, Current Neuropharmacology, 2:153-168.

Standaert D.G., Cantuti-Castelvetri I., in press, Sex Differences in Parkinson’s Disease. In: Sex on the brain: from genes to behavior. (Becker J.B., Berkley K., Geary N., Hampson E., Herman J., & Young E., Eds). Chapter 28.

Joseph J.A., Denisova N., Fisher D., Cantuti-Castelvetri I., & Erat S., 1998, Membrane constituencies and receptor subtype contribute to age-related increases in vulnerability to oxidative stress. In: Progress in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Diseases (Fisher et al., Eds). Advances in Behavioral Biology, 49:53-58.